Author: Ian Bothwell

My dog has absolutely no sense of savoring her food.  I open a can, put it in her bowl, toss the can, and when I look back her bowl is empty.  And of course she wants more. This is ridiculous.  It’s good looking food.  Chunky and laden with smooth gravy.  It looks so good I want to get a spoon.  If only she would learn to savor it, it would last so much longer and be so much more gratifying.  I want to say she just doesn’t know how to savor but when you rub her tummy she is the poster girl of savoring.  Tummy rubbing could go on all day.

Life is best when it is savored.  When my son went to first grade, he came home after the first day and announced that tomorrow he would be in second grade.  The next day he came home and announced that tomorrow he would be in third grade. That is when his mother and I stepped in with a big “NO.”   Life was not meant to be rushed along.  The world does not need twelve year old doctors.  Twelve year olds need to learn to savor the joys of enriched learning.

Many of my friends speak of wanting Jesus to come so this period of life would be over.  While I am not a masochist thinking we should enjoy pain, it would be grand if we could approach each day with a wonder for the experiences and lessons to be learned.  Maybe it is only on the latter side of this life that we realize that each day is a gift.  Do young people cry when listening to “Sunrise, Sunset” from Fiddler on the Roof?  Or is that reserved for parents and grandparents?

“This is the day the Lord has given.  Rejoice and be glad in it.”  Psalm 118:24

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 1, 2016

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The longest held scientific theory ever was that of a geocentric universe.  It worked.  Sailors used it for centuries to move about the earth.  The idea that the stars and sun rotated about us had to be right.  Everyone saw the sun come up in the morning and go down at night.  Then came Copernicus and Galileo.  And science changed.  True science is not about absolutes.  True science is having the best understanding of current data.

Albert Einstein in an endeavor to understand the nature of the universe declared there was a cosmological constant.  Years later he called it his “greatest mistake.” What if we approached religion with the same openness?  What if instead of declaring we are right and others are wrong, we said, what I believe is the best understanding of what I yet know about God?

Proverbs 4:18 says, “The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.”  I have met those who say that means I have truth and more truth will be added.  But what if it meant some of what I thought was truth needs to be revised in the new light?  This can be a bit frightening.  We need a psychological and spiritual anchor for mental health.  However, might it be more mentally healthy to live with some ambiguity than to live being positively in error?

I don’t want to sound like everything is up for grabs.  There are absolutes.  God is love.  Jesus died for us.  We are saved by grace.  That grace enables us to begin living for eternity right now.  These are key, but they are dimly lit understandings of deeper intellectual and spiritual treasures yet to be grasped.  There is so much to learn.  There is so much joy ahead.

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 28, 2016

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Yesterday I wondered why some photons go through glass and some bounce back giving us a reflection. It is wonderful to have smart friends. I have a scientist friend who has explained to me that if the glass were perfect all the photons would pass through but the imperfections in the glass, when struck by photons, cause some photons to bounce back into the room.  Thus I see myself.

And so it is that all of God’s light cannot pass into us because we are also not perfect.  Our sinful nature, our selfishness, our lewd desires render us impotent to understand all that God wants us to know.  He holds nothing back.  He floods us with love, mercy and knowledge but we just don’t get it.  Lest we start hating ourselves for this it is not all our fault.  So much of what we are we inherited.  Adam and Eve, after sin, did not have perfection to pass on to Cain.  That didn’t work out so well.  How quickly sin changed us.  Much of what we are is the product of thousands of generations of imperfect, selfish people.

Now I do not want to get overly Freudian here and place all the blame for my problems on grandpa and grandma.  God understands our plight and thus makes external power available to us.  “Now unto Him who is able to keep us from falling” is a magnificent promise.  (Jude)  (Since there isn’t a Jude 2 I didn’t bother with the reference.)

The good news is in I Corinthians 15 we are told this imperfection will put on perfection.  Which I think means we will be totally open to God’s light and will learn an incredible amount of new things forever and ever.  Oh how smart we will be!

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 27, 2016

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I’m puzzled.  It is night and when I go outside I can look in a window and see what is happening inside. This means photons are passing through the glass.  When I come back inside and look out the window I can not only see outside but I see a reflection of myself indicating that not all of the inside light is going out.  Some of the photons are bouncing back into the room.  I am wondering why?  Is it random or is there a difference in the photons that pass through glass from the photons that bounce back.  Not being a physicist I don’t know.  I was just wondering.

But it did make me reflect (pun intended) on some of my students who seem to let little light pass through their foreheads.  I lot of it seems to bounce back.   Lest I sound overly negative I happily say most of the light goes into most of my students and if it doesn’t I try again and again.   Good pedagogical process tells us students need to hear something three times for them to remember it.  So I often repeat myself.

All which brings us to God striving to get us to understand how much He loves us, how much He wants us to rejoice in His immense mercy, how much He wants us to allow His Spirit to move inside to motivate and strengthen us to be like Jesus, how much He wants to use us to further the cause of a better world, how much He wants to bring sin to its ultimate end.

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 26, 2016

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We don’t have a burning bush in our neighborhood but we do have a singing bush.  We have a large very thickly branched bush that even without foliage can provide shelter for birds.  A large family of sparrows has decided to winter inside its mass of large twigs.  One can walk past it and not see the birds inside, but they chatter up a cacophonous chorus.  I love it but I must admit sometimes I wish it were a burning bush.

When Moses was eighty years old, when most people aren’t thinking so much about the future as remembering the past, suddenly while watching a bush burn he got a whole new set of marching orders.   His best and most incredible years were yet to come.

Some people are fortunate in life and know right from the beginning what they are here for.  Others find their purpose later on and some very unfortunate souls never find it.  However, find it or not, every person has a heaven ordained plan for their part in God’s Kingdom.  In Ephesians 2 Paul speaks of God having something special for each of us.  Since we do not have burning bushes to tell us where to go and what to do when we get there, the secret of success is to surrender each morning with the prayer.

“Today Lord, I am yours. Open your doors and shove me through and I will do my best for you.”  He will be so happy to guide and shove. The real joy is, although we might never realize what we were to do, one day He personally will tell us what it was and what we did and He will say those marvelous words, “Well done thou good and faithful servant.”

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 21, 2016

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The weather app on my phone said it was 17 degrees with strong gusty winds from the northwest.  I must have been crazy thinking myself rugged and hardy.  So out the door we went, my dog and I.  The first half mile wasn’t bad at all.  The wind was at my back and my scarf had my neck and ears well protected.  Then I rounded two corners to head home.  Now the wind was fiercely in my face.  Oh what a difference one’s direction makes.  I should have known better.  A few years ago I was flying over the Tehachapi Mountains going north out of the Mohave Desert, when I looked down and I saw cars and semis were passing me.  Even though my airspeed indicator read 135mph I wasn’t going anywhere.  One’s direction is everything.

I have a friend who lives on an island west of Alaska where it snows sideways.  He, upon reading this, will think I am a wuss for even talking about what would be a pleasant afternoon stroll for him, but for me it was brutal getting home.  Even my dog picked up her pace.

But one’s direction IS everything.  Sometimes our walk in life is a breeze with the wind at our back.  But other times life hits us fiercely in the face and honestly it threatens to be defeating.  It is then that the promise of Jesus means everything.  He said, “Lo, I am with you always even unto the end.”  We never have to make it on our own.  He will get us safely home.  He never said it wouldn’t be difficult.  He did say take up our cross and follow Him.  But as tough as it can get He is tougher.  Home is a promise.

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 20, 2016

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We stopped at a Dollar Store and I bought a box of peanut brittle.  If it had cost more than a dollar I most likely would not have purchased it.  I hadn’t eaten peanut brittle in decades.  Since then I have been back to the Dollar Store three more times and have emptied their supply of that “I can’t stop eating this stuff.”  The mistake I make is eating the first tiny piece.  It throws a switch in my brain and I am drawn back like a moth to a candle.  I refuse to stop at the Dollar Store lest they get some more because I don’t want any more.

I grew up singing a marvelous hymn entitled, “Guide Me Oh Thou Great Jehovah.”  It contains the words, “Bread of heaven feed me till I want no more.”  Is that even possible?”  There was a day mentioned in all four of the Gospels when the masses just would not go home.  They were listening to Jesus and they forgot to eat they were so enthralled.  Finally He fed them bread and fish. I’m sure it was the best they had ever had but it was nothing compared to the bread of heaven He had been feeding them all day long.

I want some of that bread.  Can you imagine hearing words from the Creator Himself?  I know we have the Gospels.  But those are Matthew’s, Mark’s, Luke’s and John’s words.  And not even that.  Most of us read them translated.   Can you imagine the first Sabbath morning sermon in heaven?  Surely the Pastor will be Jesus.  He will not have to stop at noon or one or two or at all.  Bread of Heaven feed me till I want no more.  That will most likely be never!

Written by Roger Bothwell on January 19, 2016

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The first half of a flight from Atlanta to Boston this afternoon was very bumpy. However, it did not delay the beverage service.  It was great fun watching people holding plastic cups filled with ice and drink trying to get the cup safely to their lips without decorating themselves.  I was amazed how resilient people can be.  As the plane bounced up and down people with great skill \ compensated for the ups and downs and to my disappointment (Where’s the fun?)  I never saw anyone spill a drop.  I was very impressed.

We had been at an alumni weekend at a marvelous school where I used to be the pastor.  We heard lots of good news but there were also stories of great loss.  There were stories of cancer and worst of all stories of the loss of children.  I don’t know what could be worse than the loss of a child. What amazed me, much to my joy, was how resilient people can be.  It appears that God has created us with amazingly effective emotional shock absorbers.  Here’s an opportunity to use a big word.  The vicissitudes of life, as tragic and as great as they can be, with determination, time and a trust in God can be met with great strength.  There seems to be nothing with which we cannot cope.

The second half of our flight was smooth as glass and just like life.  The rough patches do not last forever.  Psalm 30:5 tells us that sorrow doesn’t last because there will be joy in the morning.  Sometimes life seems overwhelming but there are also smooth places awaiting us if we will utilize the assets God makes available.

Written by Roger Bothwell on April 7, 2014

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When I was a little guy (not yet in first grade) in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania there was a white haired man with a wheelbarrow kind of cart holding a large grinding wheel.  A few times a year he would come down the street calling out his services.  Women would come out to the curb with handfuls of knives. I loved watching the showers of sparks as he honed fine edges.  Once I even followed him a few blocks just for the show.   The only thing better was sparklers.  It was great fun to run across the lawn with one in each hand as dusk drew near.

In Ephesians 6 Paul calls the Word of God the sword of the Spirit.  Most of us learned early in life that a dull knife is a dangerous knife.  The sharper – the safer.  When we lose the freshness of our familiarity with the Word we become dull.  We don’t think as sharply about life’s trials and challenges.  This spills over into our secular as well as our spiritual walk.  The sharper we are the better we cope with our relationships and careers, because we will be making better decisions.

Not only is the Bible our guide to salvation it is also a treasure of the finest wisdom of mankind.  It is timeless information just as appropriate now as it was two thousand years ago.  Gillette Safety Razor had the following slogan for fifty years. “Look sharp, Feel sharp, Be sharp.”  It’s time for us to make showers of sparks.  No dull Christians allowed.  We will know the Word and always be ready to cut through the false ideas and heresies that come our way.  God is looking for a multitude of honed followers.

Written by Roger Bothwell on June 18, 2013

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We enjoy our woodstove on these chilly nights but I could not get it to work.  It would not draw.  Instead of the smoke going up the chimney it filled the house as the fire quickly burned out.  I exhausted my repertoire of ideas as to what to do and finally called a chimney sweep thinking some squirrel or something had during the summer plugged up the flue.  The sweep opened the stove reached in and pulled a plug of newspapers out of the flue.  He fixed the problem in less than thirty seconds.  So how did the newspapers get plugged up in the flue? For a few days while we were gone some friends from overseas needed a place to stay so we allowed them to use our home.  Need I say more?

Fire just like people cannot exist without air.  Without adequate air we don’t last very long.  Without Jesus we don’t and cannot last very long.  This world is under His constant care.   In the Gospel of John Jesus calls Himself, the water of life, the bread of life, the light, the door, the resurrection and the life.  I found myself thinking He should have also said He is the air we breathe.  Some might be tempted so say, “What about people who care nothing about Jesus.  How do they live?”  In Matthew 5 Jesus said, “For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”  The “He” He is referring to is His Father.  But since He and the Father are one in purpose and in Hebrews 1 we are told that Jesus is the Creator, we can safely say it is His care that gives life and breath to all.  Take a deep breath and then thank Him for the privilege

Written by Roger Bothwell on November 30, 2012

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